Why Create A Spiritual Rule of Life?

A Spiritual Rule of Life is not how we find our spiritual life, it's how we nurture and amplify it.

Spiritual life is always, always, always an inside out process.

We can't make it happen. We can't force it or will it. It's not from our analytical mind, rather our spiritual life flows through our intuitive heart. It is our spirit that is the gateway into the spiritual life.

So with that viewpoint, let's begin:

Crafting a Rule focuses our lives and attention on what matters most to us. It cuts off options and distractions that waste our time and sucks the life right out of us. We focus on abundant life.

We are spiritual beings first and foremost. It's the essence of who we really are. But we are human in this life with limited resources of time, talent and energy.

Our disciplines focus and enhance our lives. They expand our inner life by focusing our outer one. It's an expansive life on a narrow way.

Our hearts rule deepens and enhances our emotions rather than suppressing them. We cultivate, love, joy, peace... Yes, these are deeper than emotions, but emotion gives them motion. Emotion moves us into action. Emotion brings the spark into our lives. Flatlining our emotions is not the spiritual path, it's the souls path of control. In the garden of our heart, we cultivate the spirit's work and flow within us as it deepens and grows fruitful emotions.

I'll develop this if  you find it helpful.

Another point is: Our rules grow and adapt as we do. What works in one season of life will stifle our spirit's flow in another.

Here's where the good counsel of a Spiritual Director, an accountability group, a sage, or someone God has put in your life really helps. We don't do life alone.

Notes: Aristotle, The Tao, and Our Wisdom Voice

In the same way, Aristotle and Plato addressed the perspective of philosophy, so the Tao Te Ching addresses spirituality. Is it divinely written? I don't see that, but it's written out of the person's spirit and holds timeless insights into the nature of things.

An Example would be: "What goes around comes around." ~ Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching  Ch. 30

The Tao is written out of the spirit of the writer and thus teaches the oneness of things which is the nature of our spirit. It is the nature of our spirit to see things as wholes rather than dualistically or  opposites, life's unity rather than it's divisions.

To live out of our spirit is to live out of wholeness. This is the realm of the wise, the sage, and even our elders. Our brains actually begin to change as we get older, thus making this state of oneness or seeing things in wholes more accessible to us. 

A Sketch of Forgiveness and Healing

Forgiveness isn't a head game, it's not mental assent. And forgiveness isn't a contractual agreement: If you ask me, I will forgive you.

Forgiveness is a matter of the heart.

Let's say I was sexually abused by someone. It may take me a while, but forgiveness is usually progressive. And I don't forgive for the other person. I forgive for me. I want to be free. I want to cut any bond that might connect me to that person or event, spiritually, emotionally/mentally, and physically.

With my forgiveness, they and the trama become God's problem, not mine. But if I don't forgive, the trama remains, however fading in the distance. Unforgiveness is where we become very clever with our brokenness. Everything from split personalities, to total emotional shut-down, to acholism, drugs, personality disorders and the list goes on, and that's just the emotional/mental end. The ways we deal with brokenness is endless. Walking away may be the best thing we ever do, but it doesn't heal the underlying suffering.

But we can learn to let go. When or as we forgive, the healing can begin. My healing is why I choose to forgive, even if it takes a thousand times a day. So don't get locked into a contractual agreement, or  an all or nothing mindset. The healing process can lead us to forgiveness too, as we cut the spiritual trama in our bodies. So don't wait around for the stars to aline. Break that spiritual cord as it surfaces. The longer it festers the deeper it goes into us.

This is where some of the latest data, and things like Yoga, and Tai Chi teach us, that trama can lodge in our bodies, and muscles and make us sick. I think it can lodge in our cells and even turn on cancer, but the studies haven't gotten that far yet.

Healing and release go hand in hand in the process of forgiveness.

If it isn't dealt with, our brokenness and trama can be passed on to our children, as well as to other's around us. We might even be dealing with what has been passed on to us. In cultures that don't practice forgiveness like Muslim cultures, you are honor bound to carry on the pain of preceding generations. They're still fighting the Crusades, among other things.

This is a little sketch of things I've learned. As I've alluded to before, things like Cognitive Therapy can really lay out the problem and help us, but if we don't focus on what makes us better, we can spend a lifetime rummaging through the labyrinth of our soul.

I adhere to a wholistic approach to forgiveness and healing, to use as many helpful tools as we can find, spiritually, emotionally/mentally, and physically. It's one reason among many why I do Tai Chi, meditate etc. Good counselors, pastors, spiritual directors, group support, etc.

I'll be adding to this:

Positive Psychology:  http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/

Stanford Forgiveness Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSGfMVRVWZw

The Grace of Goodness

 Lauri Rantala via Compfight

In the West, with our fight against evil, we've maligned the concept of good, not realizing goodness is the social glue that causes every relationship, marriage, family, and society to flourish.

If indeed, as the Scriptures tell us God is good, it behooves us to check it out and see just how this character trait of God expresses itself.

Goodness always works behind the scenes, so we rarely see it. But the grace of goodness is behind every good thing that ever happens to us.

Goodness, like a cold, is caught more than taught. And as goodness is not a gift, it needs to be sought out, cultivated, and grown.

There's a great research site: The Science of a Meaningful Life

For a great place to start, I highly recommend One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. Ann is one of the most important contemplative writers of our time. She also has a wonderful website: A Holy Experience

Live big-hearted and generous.